Upselling should be a seamless part of the guest journey, elevating the experience for guests, while strengthening the bottom line. Yet many properties invest heavily in offers, scripts, and campaigns — only to see limited return. The root cause is rarely the quality of the upgrade itself, but the disconnect between digital browsing behavior and voice-channel conversations.
Balancing revenue goals with guest experience
Upselling is most effective when it adds value to the stay. Offers that are timely, relevant, and considerate of guest intent perform better than those focused purely on revenue. When the offer feels right, guests respond positively because they recognize the benefit to them.
Success depends on alignment between commercial and guest-experience objectives. Revenue teams should work with marketing and operations to identify which upgrades genuinely enhance the stay for each segment. Performance should then be measured not only by additional spend but by post-stay feedback, repeat booking rates, and guest sentiment.
This balance ensures that upselling supports both short-term revenue and long-term loyalty. When done well, it strengthens the relationship rather than testing it.
Creating an upsell culture across the property
Technology connects systems, but people shape the experience. Real upsell performance depends on how well teams work together around a shared understanding of the guest. In many hotels, marketing oversees digital offers and communications, while the reservations team manages personal interactions. Each function performs well on its own, but when they operate separately, the guest journey loses continuity.
A strong upsell culture begins with shared ownership. Marketing, revenue, and reservations should align on the same offers, pricing, and guest insights. This ensures that what guests see online is the same message they hear over the phone and experience when they arrive. The result is consistency that builds trust and improves conversion.
Regular collaboration reinforces this connection. When new packages or promotions launch, reservations teams should be briefed on the context, visuals, and messaging behind them. Likewise, the insights gathered during phone conversations — questions, objections, or common requests — should be shared with marketing to refine future campaigns.
Training also plays a central role. When agents understand the goal behind each upsell and how it adds value for the guest, they can speak with confidence and authenticity. The interaction feels consultative rather than scripted, and the offer sounds like part of the service, not a sales pitch.
When every department shares the same intent and information, upselling becomes second nature. Guests experience continuity from screen to conversation to stay, and that cohesion turns good processes into exceptional experiences.
The path forward
The most successful upsell strategies are no longer defined by individual tools or campaigns but by how well people, systems, and data work together. Hotels that close the gap between digital and voice channels create experiences that feel effortless, consistent, and personal.
The next step is integration with intent. Marketing, revenue, and reservations teams must use shared insights to design offers that are both profitable and meaningful. Technology provides the foundation, but alignment and communication turn that foundation into action.
When every touchpoint reflects a single understanding of the guest, upselling stops feeling like a tactic and becomes a natural expression of hospitality. It builds trust, drives revenue, and deepens loyalty — the real outcomes of a connected guest experience.
Take action
- Audit your current upsell journey to identify where digital and voice channels fall out of sync.
- Align marketing and reservations around shared messaging, offers, and goals.
- Measure success not only by revenue uplift, but by guest satisfaction and repeat bookings.
Ready to elevate your upsell performance and deliver experiences guests remember? Join The Direct Booking Mastery Certification and learn how to turn every conversation into an opportunity for connection and conversion.
About Revinate
Revinate is a direct booking platform that leads the hospitality industry in driving direct revenue and increased profitability.
Our products and our people combine to give hoteliers the superpowers they need to crush their goals. With Revinate, hoteliers shift share away from OTAs and drive tangible results across an individual property or a portfolio. Our industry-leading, AI-powered customer data platform collects, unifies, and synthesizes data to give hoteliers a foundational advantage.
Hoteliers gain critical intelligence — guest lifetime spend, stay preferences, ancillary revenue, and more. With Revinate’s Rich Guest Profiles™ data, hoteliers don’t need to guess who their most profitable guests are or struggle to drive conversions across email, voice, messaging, and digital channels.
Revinate’s direct booking platform and omnichannel communication technology powers 950+ million Rich Guest Profiles across 12,500+ hotels to drive over $17.2 billion in direct revenue.
Media Team
Media team | Revinate
+1 415 671 4703
Revinate, Inc.
